Social Media Trends 2015: What Channels Are People Focusing On

Well maybe it’s not so easy. Why? Because each social media channel has it’s own unique benefits.

Here’s the deal though, if you know what result you want to get out of your social media marketing efforts, you can then work in reverse to see what social media channel fits you best.

What people and companies do in most cases, is they just jump onto the social media circuit without a plan, then they get frustrated, and then they say social media doesn’t work for them. The fact is, social media does work, but it only works if you have a clear road map of expectations and desired results laid out.

We Asked Some People in the Trenches

So we decided to find out from people in the trenches, what social media channel they were going to focus on in 2015.

And in the following post, we have broken it down by person so you can see what each of them had to say.

But first, let’s see how many people chose what social platform – and the winner is…

THE RESULTS: WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS IN 2015

Twitter – 4 People

Facebook – 4 People

Google Plus – 3 People

Instagram – 1 People

Tsu – 1 People

Pinterest – 1 People

LinkedIn – 1 People

Reddit – 1 People

​Definitely Twitter is the most active social media marketing channel for me. I've built an engaged base of followers (+25,000), which share and like the content I tweet. I use some tools like Triberr, JustRetweet and ViralContentBuzz in combination to Twitter. As results, I got many hits, visits, leads and mentions.

It is not so much which channel I will focus on but what content I will develop for each channel. Content must not only be contextual for the key words one uses, but also on the channel one puts that content onto. In other words, I will be focusing to ensure that the content I place on Instagram is following best practices for that channel.

​Currently I focus most on Twitter, because it's quite a good fit for my marketing/wordpress niche. I also have the largest following there already, this helps me to get some additional traffic to my blog.

On top of that I spend way to much time there, because I enjoy it. I love interacting with other folks on Twitter and it's just amazingly easy to connect with influencers.

​For spreading content, nothing beats Twitter. Getting retweeted to huge audiences of people in your network is tops. Does that make it my "favorite"? No. I am really liking Tsu, and I also like Google Plus and Kingged. Why? For the great community on all three of them.

Assuming that Tsu continues the growth shown in this article continues, that will be my top focus for growth in 2015.

​If you can only choose one social media marketing channel to focus on in 2015, make it Reddit.

Reddit is averaging just over 170 million monthly visitors. This traffic is sent by a little over 3 million active logged-in users who visit and vote up content on around 8200 communities or sub-reddits. Reddit traffic will melt your servers and it's only going to get bigger in 2015.

I require all my clients to immediately set-up a reddit account and then use a site like www.redditlist.com to find and start following/participating in multple subreddits that are related to BOTH their personal and professional interests. I don't even let them post anything until they answer a minimum of 50 threads over a period of several weeks. Long-term success in Reddit comes down to being accepted in the community. They can spot a fake a mile away.

​I am really going to focus on Pinterest in 2015. I think it can be a great traffic source if you choose your images and boards carefully, and it's cumulative - the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

​This year is definitely the year that I will increase my engagement and following on Google Plus. It is an ideal platform for the Internet Marketing content that I share and create. I also like the fact that it allows more space for expression than Twitter, which is quite limiting. The added SEO benefit is great too. Finally, using Google Plus will force me to make my content visually appealing which is helpful for when I share things on Pinterest (another social network that I have my eye on).

If you are building an entertainment website, Facebook is the best social media marketing channel. Otherwise, Twitter seems to consistently drive traffic across a variety of different niches. The focus should be to build up a very loyal and targeted following to promote engagement and click-throughs.

For certain B2B companies, that might be LinkedIn. For entertainment and fashion, perhaps Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. For everyone, definitely do Facebook, as long as you're not in Russia or China.Who cares which social networks are cool or have X traffic? Like a smart hedge fund manager, allocate your money and time to where you get the best return. Go into your Google Analytics to see what's already converting. Then throw fuel on the fire. Double up on what's working already.

For us, we like to at least have Facebook and Google retargeting on, since you're catching the people who've come to your site, but didn't convert. This is a structural no-brainer that has nothing to do with social media, Facebook pages, or whatever. It's increasing the yield of people who you already have. Beyond that, you can do lookalike audiences on a few of the social networks, but clearly, Facebook has the most powerful (and easy to use) platform out there.

The good news is that you don't need any third party tools to do this, nor any external consultants. Facebook and Google have simplified thing in 2015 to allow even a busy small business owner to do this.

My fav one is definitely Linkedin. Mainly because of different personas that are using this social media platform. Imagine - as agency owner you can find there talented future employees who may join your agency as well as customers, small/mid business owners who may become your clients. Isn't that amazing?

​Moreover there is a way to publish blog posts using Linkedin Pulse. You can even share photos from holidays on your stream (like you used to on Facebook). So well... I think Linkedin is a win in every aspect.

1 Comment

Thanks to David Leonhardt for sharing this on Kingged.com and thanks to you, Brandon, for putting this together, 🙂

It’s always interesting reading posts like these which contain, not just one person’s (the writer) thoughts about a particular topic, but those of experts on the topic. As the say – the more experts weigh in on a topic of discussion, the better!

This is a good read for those wondering what they should focus on this 2015. Obviously, those who know what they are doing in life know the importance of focus. There are too many things craving for our attention daily, especially the many different social networks out there. So, yes, focus is critically important, now, more than ever before!

And nowhere is that more important than the social media world of today. There are way too many social networking or similar sites out there. It’s a good idea to spend more time on those that give you the best results, to avoid being a “Jack of all trades, Master of none”, 😉

Lastly, good to see David mentioning Kingged here. Certainly encouraging that he gets a lot of highly targeted traffic from Kingged.com, all for free. Such unsolicited testimonials from members like him only push us to do much more. Thanks again, David!

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